 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 929, 9 August 2021 |
Welcome to this year's 31st issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Maintaining an operating system takes a certain amount of work. A lot of that effort can be automated since that is what computers excel at doing. However, sometimes it pays to stop and consider what aspects of an operating system's upkeep should be automated and which parts should be left under manual control. This week, in our Questions and Answers column, we talk about defragmenting Linux filesystems and whether it is a good idea to automatically defragment Btrfs. Do you use any defragment options with Btrfs? Let us know in this week's Opinion Poll. First through we take a look at SME Server, a member of the CentOS family which is dedicated to providing a small, easy to use server platform. Learn more about SME Server in this week's Feature Story. Then we are pleased to discuss Linux Mint developing a new website, developers trying out a fork of systemd on OpenBSD, and DragonFly BSD changing the way filesystem snapshots are handled when the disk becomes full. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a terrific week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: SME Server 10.0
- News: Mint developing a new website, OpenBSD running systemd fork, DragonFly BSD changes how snapshots work with limited disk space
- Questions and answers: Defragmenting Linux filesystems
- Released last week
- Torrent corner: Alpine, Arch, Bluestar, Kaisen, KDE neon, Nitrux, PClinuxOS, Snal
- Upcoming releases: Tails 4.21, Debian 11
- Opinion poll: Do you defrag Btrfs?
- New additions: Navy Linux
- New distributions: Airyx
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (13MB) and MP3 (10MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
SME Server 10.0
SME Server is a member of the Fedora and CentOS family. The project's latest release, SME Server 10.0, is based on CentOS 7 which will receive support through June 2024. The newest release fixes some issues with RAID setups and allows installation on machines running in UEFI mode. There are two editions of SME Server, both built for the x86_64 architecture. The regular install media is 1.5GB while the smaller, network install media is 635MB. I decided to try the larger, full install media.
The project's documentation lists various uses for SME Server including backups, web hosting, e-mail, and firewall. The documentation also mentions SME Server can be managed from a web-based interface which may be more convenient than using the distribution's command line.
Booting from the install media brings up a menu offering to install the distribution, install the server in text mode, or check the media's integrity and then launch the installer. I like having the integrity check built right into the media as an extra layer of protection. I took this latter option which confirmed the media was good and then launched the Anaconda system installer.
Installing
The Anaconda installer begins by asking us to select a language from a list. We are then shown a hub screen where we can access configuration modules in the order of our choosing. These modules give us the opportunity to select our time zone, change our preferred language, alter the keyboard layout, and pick the location of the install media. There are also modules for partitioning the hard drive and selecting which packages to install. The package selection screen only has one option: the minimal install set which will create a command line environment and web-based portal.
When I checked the partitioning screen I discovered SME Server sets up partitions automatically. This gives us an XFS boot partition and a LVM volume which is also formatted with XFS. A swap partition is created for us unless we change these default settings.
The installer took longer than usual to set up SME Server, but it did complete successfully and then offer to restart the computer. The first time we boot the new copy of the distribution a text-based wizard is run. We are asked if we want to restore a backup of the operating system. Then, assuming we do not perform a restore, we are asked to make up a new password for the root account. The wizard then walks us through making up a hostname and assigning an IP address to a network device. We are asked if this server will be a plain server or a gateway for other devices connecting to the Internet. In my case I was using a stand alone server and was asked to provide the IP address for my router. The wizard's last question is whether we wish to enable DHCP services for other devices on the network. When the wizard is done it turns us over to a text console where we can login as the root user.
Early impressions
One of the first things I noticed about my new SME Server was that it was very slow to respond and perform tasks. Logging into the local console took around five seconds. Running any program, whether it was cat, top, or a text editor took around ten seconds. It didn't take long to identify the problem. The Clam anti-virus software and ssl-aparms were running in the background and consuming all available CPU resources. Once these processes were killed, the system was still sluggish and RAM was full, causing the system to swap heavily. I found the clamd process was still running, even with clamav shut down, and it was consuming all the memory it could get.
I found that killing these runaway processes didn't work as systemd would simply restart them. I also found that running "systemctl disable" to prevent the processes from restarting would fail due to a timeout since running commands took too long. I had to use systemctl to stop the aggressive processes and then disable them to prevent them from starting up when the operating system was rebooted.
In short, my trial got off to a very slow and frustrating start. Once the problematic processes were stopped, I found SME Server runs a fairly standard command line environment. The usual GNU shell utilities are included along with systemd and version 3.10 of the Linux kernel. The MySQL database software and a web server are running in the background. There are packages from seven versions of PHP installed by default, including PHP modules from versions 8.0, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0, and 5.6.
The web portal
Visiting the new server's IP address in a web browser brings up a page which says this website is under construction. I wasn't sure which port or directory on the server I would need to visit to access the administrator portal. Reading through the documentation revealed the information I wanted in Chapter 6: we can access the portal by visiting https://server-ip/server-manager/
SME Server 10.0 -- The login page for the web portal
(full image size: 117kB, resolution: 1326x768 pixels)
Once we connect we're prompted for a username and password. The username "root" is blocked, but the user "admin" can sign in using the same password as the root account. The web interface has groups of settings arrayed down the left side of the browser window. Available settings and actions in a group are shown to the right.
The available settings modules are divided into five sections: users and groups; backup and restore as well as viewing log files; remote access and port forwarding; configuration of services and installing software; and support with the option of reporting bugs. One of the first things I noticed while browsing the web portal was the interface provided little to no feedback to indicate when something had been clicked or a setting saved. For example, when I went into the user accounts screen I made up a username for a regular user account and clicked the "Add" button to create the user. Nothing happened on the web page; no confirmation or error was shown. However, when I left that page and went back into the user account manager page my new account was listed as available.
SME Server 10.0 -- The user manager after my account has been unlocked and the password reset
(full image size: 192kB, resolution: 1326x768 pixels)
I ran into this same lack of visual feedback when performing other tasks, such as enabling the OpenSSH daemon. Nothing on the screen indicated the service had been enabled (or that a problem had occurred) though the service started to respond to connection attempts.
While the OpenSSH service was running and responding, my attempts to login as a regular user were blocked. Looking at the user manager in the web portal showed that my account was locked and, presumably needed its password to be set up. I tried to make up a password through the web portal, but even with a password of the required length (at least eight characters), with upper-case and lower-case letters included, and both a number and a symbol used I still received an error saying the password was not complex enough. Though not the reason why. I also couldn't see a clear way to unlock the account from the web portal. I switched to a local console, unlocked the new user account and set its password with the passwd command. I still couldn't sign into the account and the web portal continued to show the account as being locked.
Returning, for a moment, to the topic of background services, apart from dealing with printing, OpenSSH, and FTP services, there doesn't appear to be any way to manage background services through the web portal. I could not, for example, find a way to manage the anti-virus software, database, or mail service.
Managing software
The section of the web portal set aside for managing software has two key areas. One offers to install additional software on the operating system while the other provides access to updates from the distribution's repositories. Clicking the button to access additional software did nothing.
SME Server 10.0 -- Module for managing software
(full image size: 174kB, resolution: 1326x768 pixels)
Selecting the option to install available updates brings up a list of new packages present in the SME Server repositories. I accepted the listed updates and waited a few minutes while the packages were downloaded and installed. Once the process completed successfully a message is displayed which says the system needs to be reconfigured and restarted. We are warned that not performing these steps may cause problems with the system. I clicked on the presented reconfigure option which returned me to the install/update page and where I was shown another warning indicating the system needed to be reconfigured and restarted.
I was curious about how I could reconfigure the system and, for that matter, what it would entail. At first I thought perhaps the first-run wizard would run again if I restarted so I rebooted the computer. However, when the system came back on-line I was still shown the warning letting me know I needed to reconfigure the system and restart again to avoid problems.
SME Server 10.0 -- Warning displayed after rebooting
(full image size: 223kB, resolution: 1326x768 pixels)
With a little looking around I found a Reconfigure option in the web portal on the screen that controls shutting down and rebooting the system. I selected the Reconfigure item and, at first nothing appeared to happen. However, a short time later the system halted. When I powered on the server again the system failed to load, dropping me to a GRUB prompt. Whatever the Reconfigure step had done prevented the system from ever booting again.
Conclusions
In hindsight it's difficult for me to imagine how my trial with SME Server could have gone worse. One might point out that at least the system installer worked, but even then the installer is unusually slow and a bit awkward to navigate compared to other dedicated server and NAS solutions currently available.
Things got off to a poor start with anti-virus processes consuming all available CPU and memory resources and got worse when it became apparent that the systemctl command would timeout while trying to shutdown the runaway services while systemd would restart the processes I terminated by other means.
The user account manager rejected passwords I tried to apply to new accounts and incorrectly reported accounts were locked, even after I had unlocked them from the command line. The web interface does not show feedback or show confirmation when action buttons are clicked. Most services cannot be managed through the web portal and new software could not be added to the system without turning to the command line.
To make matters worse, updating the system and taking the Reconfigure option the system keeps insisting is necessary corrupts the system and prevents it from booting.
SME Server 10.0 -- Setting up network workgroup
(full image size: 191kB, resolution: 1326x768 pixels)
Looking through the web interface prior to the system becoming unusable, there do not appear to be many tools for managing services or setting up tasks. It looks like most significant options need to be managed from the command line and there are very few tasks we can perform through the web portal that are not easier and faster from the console.
One aspect of SME Server that puzzles me a bit is its short support cycle. SME Server 10.0 is new (it came out earlier this year), but it's based on CentOS 7 which is about seven years into its ten year support cycle. Which means SME Server 10.0 only receives three years of support. As a result we are stuck running seven year old software packages, but will only benefit from three years of updates. It seems we'd be better off running a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 clone with something like Webmin installed.
I encountered a lot of frustration from trying to use SME Server with virtually nothing to show from my efforts, but a lot of bugs. I think most other members of the Fedora/CentOS family would provide a smoother experience.
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Visitor supplied rating
SME Server has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8/10 from 7 review(s).
Have you used SME Server? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith and Ladislav Bodnar) |
Mint developing a new website, OpenBSD running systemd fork, DragonFly BSD changes how snapshots work with limited disk space
The Linux Mint team is busy backporting new features to Linux Mint Debian Edition 4 as well as earlier releases of the Linux Mint 20.x series. The team is also designing a new website. "The new website will have a new look but it will also feature an adaptive layout, work well on any device, present information in a modern way and focus on what most visitors expect to find when they first browse it: What is Linux Mint? Why use Linux Mint? How to install it? With the stable release just behind us the timing is right and this project is given more focus. If you're talented in graphics design, UI/UX design, web design or even artwork in general get in touch with us." Contact information for the team along with additional information on recent changes to the distribution can be found in the project's July newsletter.
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The systemd software suite, which provides the init process and service manager for most Linux distributions, is not something most people would associate with OpenBSD, an operating system known for its minimalism. However, a project called InitWare has been working on porting code elements of systemd to other operating systems via a fork. In particular, InitWare aims to run on the major flavours of BSD, and some success has been gained getting it to run on OpenBSD. Screenshots of InitWare running on OpenBSD have been posted to reddit.
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The DragonFly BSD team is introducing a new approach to handling HAMMER2 filesystem snapshots when the storage device is running low on available space. In the past snapshots would fail if not enough room was available, but now snapshots take on a rolling approach, discarding old data when the drive runs out of space. Justin Sherrill explains: "It used to be that if you had a HAMMER2 volume and ran low on space, snapshotting would stop so that you didn't completely fill the disk. Now, thanks to Francis GUDIN, snapshots continue to roll forward and discard older ones to keep disk usage constant. It won't fix the low disk space issue, but snapshots will stay up to date."
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Defragmenting Linux filesystems
Getting-the-pieces-jumbled-together asks: I was wondering if you could do a quick recap of the status of defrag in different filesystems, for SSDs. More specifically, I cannot figure out if it makes any sense to mount Btrfs root and home subvolumes with "-o autodefrag".
DistroWatch answers: For people who may not be familiar with the concept of defragmenting a filesystem, first I'd like to provide a little background information. Typically filesystems try to save new files as one long string of data, keeping the pieces of the file all in one place. However, over time files can change in size or the drive can fill up, reducing the amount of free contiguous space. When this happens pieces of files may end up written to different parts of the disk. On a modern SSD storage devices this fragmentation usually doesn't have a big impact, but on spinning hard drives, where the disk needs to physically adjust to scan the area they read from, fragmented files can slow down the process of reading data from the hard drive.
Basically, a fragmented filesystem means the pieces of multiple files are scattered around the hard drive instead of being neatly organized into contiguous chunks. This disorganization can slow down file access.
Defragmenting a filesystem (also known as defragging) means gathering up the pieces of scattered files and reorganizing them. A defragmented filesystem has neatly ordered blocks of files and reading them no longer requires reading from lots of different parts of the disk.
Most modern Linux filesystems do a good job of organizing their data so that fragmentation rarely happens to the point where it becomes a problem. Typically, assuming 20% or more of your hard drive space is free, Linux filesystems will shift data around to make sure the disk organization does not become too fragmented. This is further helped by using SSDs, as the storage devices handle reads from random locations on the drive easier than classic spinning disks.
Now, let's talk specifically about Btrfs, an advanced filesystem with copy-on-write (CoW) data, snapshots, and an option which allows for automatic defragmentation (autodefrag). The Btrfs section of the Linux kernel wiki mentions fragmentation as a possible problem, particularly when using databases and virtual machines:
Files with a lot of random writes can become heavily fragmented (10,000+ extents) causing thrashing on HDDs and excessive multi-second spikes of CPU load on systems with an SSD or large amount a RAM. On servers and workstations this affects databases and virtual machine images.
The wiki goes on to mention fragmentation may happen when running applications which heavily make use of databases, such as web browsers and e-mail clients. The result can be heavier CPU usage and poorer performance. The recommended solution, according to the wiki, is to periodically run the defragmentation command manually or enable the autodefrag option: "Workarounds include manually defragmenting your home directory using 'btrfs fi defragment'. Auto-defragment (mount option autodefrag) should solve this problem in 3.0."
At this point it sounds as though enabling autodefrag on your Btrfs volumes makes sense. If there is no fragmentation then there is no harm done, but if your filesystem is processing a lot of random writes the autodefrag flag should fix the problem. Before you rush ahead to turn on the automatic defragmentation option, consider Oracle's Btrfs documentation which offers this advice:
You can set up automatic defragmentation by specifying the autodefrag option when you mount the file system. However, automatic defragmentation is not recommended for large databases or for images of virtual machines.
Defragmenting a file or a subvolume that has a copy-on-write copy results breaks [sic] the link between the file and its copy. For example, if you defragment a subvolume that has a snapshot, the disk usage by the subvolume and its snapshot will increase because the snapshot is no longer a copy-on-write image of the subvolume.
In other words, there is a price to pay for less fragmentation and that is larger amounts of disk space being consumed. The Btrfs manual page echoes this concern: "This may cause considerable increase of space usage depending on the broken up reflinks"
My suggestion would be to leave autodefrag turned off by default. Chances are that, in most situations, you won't need it. However, if you do find your filesystem access slowing down you can perform a one-time defrag from the command line by running "btrfs filesystem defragment". The btrfs-filesysetm manual page has a section dedicated to defragmenting Btrfs and its subvolumes. I recommend looking at the various options, particularly those related to recursively defragmenting a directory.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 2,541
- Total data uploaded: 39.1TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Do you defrag Btrfs?
In this week's Questions and Answers column we talked about defragmenting Linux filesystems, with a particular focus on Btrfs. We would like to hear whether you defrag your Btrfs volume. Did you notice any side-effects from performing the defrag action? Let us know about your experiences in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on reviving coverage of dormant distributions in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Do you defrag your Btrfs volume?
| Yes - using autodefrag: | 43 (3%) |
| Yes - manually: | 28 (2%) |
| No: | 353 (23%) |
| I do not use Btrfs: | 1103 (72%) |
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| Website News |
New distributions added to database
Navy Linux
Navy Linux is an open source community project founded by UnixLab (Unix/Linux developers community). The project aims to provide a free-of-cost clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux with minimal install media.
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New distributions added to waiting list
- Airyx. Airyx is an open source desktop operating system that aims to provide a similar experience and compatibility with macOS on x86-64 systems. It builds on the foundation of FreeBSD, existing open source packages in the same space, and new code to fill the gaps.
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DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 16 August 2021. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Article Search page. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews/submissions, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, donations, comments)
- Bruce Patterson (podcast)
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Issue 1035 (2023-09-04): Debian GNU/Hurd 2023, PCLinuxOS 2023.07, do home users need a firewall, AlmaLinux introduces new repositories, Rocky Linux commits to RHEL compatibility, NetBSD machine runs unattended for nine years, Armbian runs wallpaper contest |
| • Issue 1034 (2023-08-28): Void 20230628, types of memory usage, FreeBSD receives port of Linux NVIDIA driver, Fedora plans improved theme handling for Qt applications, Canonical's plans for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1033 (2023-08-21): MiniOS 20230606, system user accounts, how Red Hat clones are moving forward, Haiku improves WINE performance, Debian turns 30 |
| • Issue 1032 (2023-08-14): MX Linux 23, positioning new windows on the desktop, Linux Containers adopts LXD fork, Oracle, SUSE, and CIQ form OpenELA |
| • Issue 1031 (2023-08-07): Peppermint OS 2023-07-01, preventing a file from being changed, Asahi Linux partners with Fedora, Linux Mint plans new releases |
| • Issue 1030 (2023-07-31): Solus 4.4, Linux Mint 21.2, Debian introduces RISC-V support, Ubuntu patches custom kernel bugs, FreeBSD imports OpenSSL 3 |
| • Issue 1029 (2023-07-24): Running Murena on the Fairphone 4, Flatpak vs Snap sandboxing technologies, Redox OS plans to borrow Linux drivers to expand hardware support, Debian updates Bookworm media |
| • Issue 1028 (2023-07-17): KDE Connect; Oracle, SUSE, and AlmaLinux repsond to Red Hat's source code policy change, KaOS issues media fix, Slackware turns 30; security and immutable distributions |
| • Issue 1027 (2023-07-10): Crystal Linux 2023-03-16, StartOS (embassyOS 0.3.4.2), changing options on a mounted filesystem, Murena launches Fairphone 4 in North America, Fedora debates telemetry for desktop team |
| • Issue 1026 (2023-07-03): Kumander Linux 1.0, Red Hat changing its approach to sharing source code, TrueNAS offers SMB Multichannel, Zorin OS introduces upgrade utility |
| • Issue 1025 (2023-06-26): KaOS with Plasma 6, information which can leak from desktop environments, Red Hat closes door on sharing RHEL source code, SUSE introduces new security features |
| • Issue 1024 (2023-06-19): Debian 12, a safer way to use dd, Debian releases GNU/Hurd 2023, Ubuntu 22.10 nears its end of life, FreeBSD turns 30 |
| • Issue 1023 (2023-06-12): openSUSE 15.5 Leap, the differences between independent distributions, openSUSE lengthens Leap life, Murena offers new phone for North America |
| • Issue 1022 (2023-06-05): GetFreeOS 2023.05.01, Slint 15.0-3, Liya N4Si, cleaning up crowded directories, Ubuntu plans Snap-based variant, Red Hat dropping LireOffice RPM packages |
| • Issue 1021 (2023-05-29): rlxos GNU/Linux, colours in command line output, an overview of Void's unique features, how to use awk, Microsoft publishes a Linux distro |
| • Issue 1020 (2023-05-22): UBports 20.04, finding another machine's IP address, finding distros with a specific kernel, Debian prepares for Bookworm |
| • Issue 1019 (2023-05-15): Rhino Linux (Beta), checking which applications reply on a package, NethServer reborn, System76 improving application responsiveness |
| • Issue 1018 (2023-05-08): Fedora 38, finding relevant manual pages, merging audio files, Fedora plans new immutable edition, Mint works to fix Secure Boot issues |
| • Issue 1017 (2023-05-01): Xubuntu 23.04, Debian elects Project Leaders and updates media, systemd to speed up restarts, Guix System offering ground-up source builds, where package managers install files |
| • Issue 1016 (2023-04-24): Qubes OS 4.1.2, tracking bandwidth usage, Solus resuming development, FreeBSD publishes status report, KaOS offers preview of Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1015 (2023-04-17): Manjaro Linux 22.0, Trisquel GNU/Linux 11.0, Arch Linux powering PINE64 tablets, Ubuntu offering live patching on HWE kernels, gaining compression on ex4 |
| • Issue 1014 (2023-04-10): Quick looks at carbonOS, LibreELEC, and Kodi, Mint polishes themes, Fedora rolls out more encryption plans, elementary OS improves sideloading experience |
| • Issue 1013 (2023-04-03): Alpine Linux 3.17.2, printing manual pages, Ubuntu Cinnamon becomes official flavour, Endeavour OS plans for new installer, HardenedBSD plans for outage |
| • Issue 1012 (2023-03-27): siduction 22.1.1, protecting privacy from proprietary applications, GNOME team shares new features, Canonical updates Ubuntu 20.04, politics and the Linux kernel |
| • Issue 1011 (2023-03-20): Serpent OS, Security Onion 2.3, Gentoo Live, replacing the scp utility, openSUSE sees surge in downloads, Debian runs elction with one candidate |
| • Issue 1010 (2023-03-13): blendOS 2023.01.26, keeping track of which files a package installs, improved network widget coming to elementary OS, Vanilla OS changes its base distro |
| • Issue 1009 (2023-03-06): Nemo Mobile and the PinePhone, matching the performance of one distro on another, Linux Mint adds performance boosts and security, custom Ubuntu and Debian builds through Cubic |
| • Issue 1008 (2023-02-27): elementary OS 7.0, the benefits of boot environments, Purism offers lapdock for Librem 5, Ubuntu community flavours directed to drop Flatpak support for Snap |
| • Issue 1007 (2023-02-20): helloSystem 0.8.0, underrated distributions, Solus team working to repair their website, SUSE testing Micro edition, Canonical publishes real-time edition of Ubuntu 22.04 |
| • Issue 1006 (2023-02-13): Playing music with UBports on a PinePhone, quick command line and shell scripting questions, Fedora expands third-party software support, Vanilla OS adds Nix package support |
| • Issue 1005 (2023-02-06): NuTyX 22.12.0 running CDE, user identification numbers, Pop!_OS shares COSMIC progress, Mint makes keyboard and mouse options more accessible |
| • Issue 1004 (2023-01-30): OpenMandriva ROME, checking the health of a disk, Debian adopting OpenSnitch, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1003 (2023-01-23): risiOS 37, mixing package types, Fedora seeks installer feedback, Sparky offers easier persistence with USB writer |
| • Issue 1002 (2023-01-16): Vanilla OS 22.10, Nobara Project 37, verifying torrent downloads, Haiku improvements, HAMMER2 being ports to NetBSD |
| • Issue 1001 (2023-01-09): Arch Linux, Ubuntu tests new system installer, porting KDE software to OpenBSD, verifying files copied properly |
| • Issue 1000 (2023-01-02): Our favourite projects of all time, Fedora trying out unified kernel images and trying to speed up shutdowns, Slackware tests new kernel, detecting what is taking up disk space |
| • Issue 999 (2022-12-19): Favourite distributions of 2022, Fedora plans Budgie spin, UBports releasing security patches for 16.04, Haiku working on new ports |
| • Issue 998 (2022-12-12): OpenBSD 7.2, Asahi Linux enages video hardware acceleration on Apple ARM computers, Manjaro drops proprietary codecs from Mesa package |
| • Issue 997 (2022-12-05): CachyOS 221023 and AgarimOS, working with filenames which contain special characters, elementary OS team fixes delta updates, new features coming to Xfce |
| • Issue 996 (2022-11-28): Void 20221001, remotely shutting down a machine, complex aliases, Fedora tests new web-based installer, Refox OS running on real hardware |
| • Issue 995 (2022-11-21): Fedora 37, swap files vs swap partitions, Unity running on Arch, UBports seeks testers, Murena adds support for more devices |
| • Issue 994 (2022-11-14): Redcore Linux 2201, changing the terminal font size, Fedora plans Phosh spin, openSUSE publishes on-line manual pages, disabling Snap auto-updates |
| • Issue 993 (2022-11-07): Static Linux, working with just a kernel, Mint streamlines Flatpak management, updates coming to elementary OS |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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| Shells.com |
Your own personal Linux computer in the cloud, available on any device. Supported operating systems include Android, Debian, Fedora, KDE neon, Kubuntu, Linux Mint, Manjaro and Ubuntu, ready in minutes.
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| Random Distribution | 
ZoneCD
The Public IP ZoneCD was a re-mastered variant of the Morphix CD. Public IP's ZoneCD was a bootable CD with a collection of GNU/Linux software pre-configured to create a WiFi gateway. The CD was a mini operating system with automatic hardware detection, and support for many graphics cards, sound cards and other peripherals. The gateway includes support for WiFi end-user authentication and web content filtering. Public IP ZoneCD was distributed under the GNU General Public License.
Status: Discontinued
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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